Gena's Journal: A BIT OF TEXAS HISTORY...errr...TRIVIA... (#93)

As promised, here is some rather surreal Texas trivia that is all but unknown.

Last weekend we were driving west on Texas highway 31 from Tyler, Texas as we worked our way back to I-35 and thus back to Dallas. Twenty or so miles east of Corsicana, Texas (home of some famous fruitcake that gets sent all over the world!) we looked to the left as we passed the tiny town of Kerens, population well under 1000. We noted that they were having a street festival in the downtown area, so we decided to investigate. Calling it downtown is practically a misnomer. There were all of perhaps 20 storefronts, many uninhabited, and those that were fortunate enough to remain viable were very weathered and in need of some general upkeep. Case in point..... the City Hall building shown below.

I am by no means being critical. I find the condition of the town and its people very charming, very down to earth, and very REAL. A quick look around the surrounding acreage tells a story of cotton growers, cotton harvesting, and cotton gins. The fields are bare of their cotton now, with nothing more than a few tell-tale puffs of white left on the ground as evidence of what once grew in that spot.

In need of using the rest room, we approached the Visitor Welcome Center. Normally it is only open Monday through Friday, but being a special weekend for their festival it was open.

Inside there were t-shirts and caps proudly displaying the name Kerens, Texas. Then something caught my eye. A framed, yellowed news clipping declaring Kerens as the birthplace of Big Tex. Double-take. Huh??? Birthplace of Big Tex???? They had to be kidding.

Big Tex is a gigantic cowboy that stands at the entrance of The State Fair of Texas (located in Dallas), which coincidentally was currently running (we went last week on "senior day"). He is the voice and symbol of the State Fair. Periodically he lets out with a resounding "Howdy, folks!", to the delight of fair goers, whether local or out of town. He is put up each year right before the Fair begins the end of September and stands watch until the end which is late October. A big fanfare is made about the size of his boots and the size of his waist. Very folksy lore in these parts.

Back to Kerens. The story goes that it was November 1949 and the local retailers of Kerens were tired of losing all the Christmas trade to the bigger cities of Corsicana and Dallas. So they came up with an idea to entice shoppers to their community. They decided to erect a giant Santa. The story goes that a certain gentleman fashioned the welded frame after two well-known townsmen. The claim is that he took their respective measurements, found the average and then multiplied by 7 to get the dimensions for Santa. Local ladies sewed the Santa suit and the men contributed by helping unravel lengths of rope to make Santa's beard while sitting in the barber chair. This was the result.

The story goes on further to tell of a strong wind that whipped up and tore Santa's pants off the huge frame. Rather than remake the pants a "chimney" was constructed around him to give the appearance of making one of his infamous Christmas Eve stops.

There was no mention whether or not the retailers succeeded in enlarging their Christmas revenue. Supposedly the novelty eventually wore off and the frame was sold to a Dallas businessman who turned Santa into Big Tex.

Here is how Big Tex looks in modern times. This was not the picture from 2008. This year his western shirt was bright yellow with blue yokes. Other years it has been plaid. Regardless, the framework was made in Kerens, Texas and lives on each year in Dallas, Texas at The State Fair of Texas.

Isn't this a cool story????